Last year didn’t go as the Detroit Lions wanted. They came up extremely short of their ultimate goal of winning a championship, not even making the playoffs.
There are, obviously, a ton of reasons for this. Among them: poor team health, difficult schedule, coaching and playing errors in critical moments, bad depth in certain areas, and a big downgrade on the offensive line roster.
But let’s revisit last year’s offseason to see what Lions general manager Brad Holmes did that set the Lions up for the season they had in 2025. While it’ll be easy to focus on some of the negative moves or the lack of moves they made at certain positions, today, let’s focus on the positive. Saturday, we’ll look at the other side of the coin.
Today’s Question of the Day is:
What was the Lions’ best free agent signing of 2025?
My answer: As a reminder of Detroit’s acquisitions last offseason, you can check out our 2025 roster moves tracker.
In my opinion, the answer to this question comes down to three options:
- Roy Lopez: One-year, $3.5 million
- Avonte Maddox: One-year, $1.4 million
- Rock Ya-Sin: One-year, $1.17 million
Despite costing the least out of the three, Ya-Sin actually played the most defensive snaps of the trio above. That certainly was not the plan going in, but with so many injuries dealt to the Lions’ cornerback room, Ya-Sin was forced into action and played quite well. He posted the highest coverage grade of any Lions cornerback who logged more than 50 coverage snaps (67.1), while also allowing the lowest passer rating when targeted (76.6). His nine passes defensed was a career high for him, as well.
While Ya-Sin is my pick because of overall value, I believe Roy Lopez produced the best play of all their free agent signings. The veteran nose tackle played quite well as the rotational nose tackle. While I knew Lopez would be reliable in the run game, I was impressed by the occasional juice he provided as a pass rusher. He produced 2.0 sacks and a five quarterback hits—both career highs—and 13 pressures. Those numbers may not seem high, but those pressures were timely and impactful.
As for Maddox, he didn’t get a ton of snaps for most of the season, but his ability to learn and play safety proved quite valuable at the end of the year, and—more importantly—he could be even more important if Detroit retains him in 2026. The Lions’ future at safety is in peril, and having a reliable veteran like Maddox could be imperative moving forward.
Which 2025 free agent signing do you believe was the best? Scroll down to the comment section and sound off.
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